A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs.

  • Colombat de l'Isère, 1797-1851.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases and special hygiène of females / By Colombat de l'Isère. Translated from the French, with additions, by Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    from the womb and escapes from the capillaries on the mucous sur- face, where, incited by a lively irritation, it is conducted into unac- customed channels and expelled by a process of exhalation. In his anatomical researches upon the position of the glands and their action, Theoph. de Bordeu gives out nearly the same opinion. The womb and the vagina effect an excretion of blood almost as pure in common as that which flows in the vessels. This excretion occurs once a month or nearly so; it begins about the age of twelve or fifteen and terminates towards the fortieth or fiftieth year, and is generally suspended during suckling and under certain diseases that occasion discharges, whether sanguine or of other character, &c. The excre- tion of the womb takes place as it does in all the other glands—that we have denominated active glands. The organ awakes, (erigitur,) and, by the turns (replis) which it makes upon itself, it invites the blood and rejects it outwards by the same mechanism we have else- where explained. Each organ acting in its turn, that of the womb recurs only from month to month. Why ? This is what we are ignorant of—and what we seek to know. In women the menses may be regarded as the aurora and com- panions of puberty. In fact, though there be samples wherein a sanguine discharge from the vulva may have been noticed in children of from two to six years old, or in women who have attained to an advanced age, true menstruation does not commence until the period when the young girl is fitted to become a mother—and ceases when she loses, together with her charms, the faculty of conceiving in the womb.1 This point of sexual dissolution is generally attained about the fortieth or fiftieth year, earlier or later. Menstruation, then, is a physiological function which characterizes the period during which the female is endowed with the reproductive faculty. From the first appearance of the menses until the term when they are to cease, from the lapse of years, her health, her freshness and her beauty depend upon the regular return of this sanguine evacua- tion.2 Those who experience no menstrual revolution are rarely fruitful, and its sudden suppression in youth and in health is one of the least deceptive signs of conception. 1 Professor Osiander, of Goettingen, has noted that of 137 women, 9 were regular at 12 setat., 8 at 13, 21 at 14, 32 at 15, 24 at 16, 11 at 17, 18 at 18, 10 at 19, 8 at 20, and 1 at 21, and one other at 24. From this statistical view of menstruation it is seen that the mean age for the apparition is between fifteen and sixteen years. 2 We know a lady thirty years of age who has never been regular, and who, neverthe- less, enjoys perfect health. She has had no children, notwithstanding that she has been, since her eighteenth year, united to a husband who is young and in vigorous health. The sister of,this lady is also married and has never been regular; but she has had one child— a healthy one. The annals of the science furnish many similar examples. Rondellet, chancellor of the faculty at Montpellier, speaks of a woman who had twelve children, and Joubert, his pupil and successor, speaks of one who gave birth to eighteen children though neither of these women had menstruated. Zacchias and Fodere have also related similar observations. We may add that the periodical discharge furnishes, in its history, numerous examples of anomalies and deviations; but all these irregularities and menstrual aberrations do not impair the validity of the general rule, for, being the fruits of some dis- order of the womb, they constitute real cases of disease. [Madame N 1 informed me that she had given birth to ten children, and that she had never menstruated since her marriage, having always become pregnant before the return of her courses after a con- finement.—M.]